Purpose: The current COVID-19 pandemic has created an extremely dynamic and uncertain environment in which businesses find it very difficult to operate, particularly those in the hospitality ...industry. It is therefore very important to understand which actions hospitality businesses think the private and public sectors should adopt in order to cope with the pandemic and its impact. To facilitate this, this research adopted chaos theory to investigate Italian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the hospitality sector. Methods: A mixed method approach, based on a convergent parallel design data validation variant, was adopted. A survey with open and closed questions was developed and sent to a sample of businesses. 1,040 completed questionnaires were collected and analysed through descriptive statistics; in addition to these usable surveys, 361 open-ended answers were analysed thematically. Results: The results showed that Italian entrepreneurs and managers were over-relying on interventions from the public sector and that there was a lack of business actions being made, thus evidencing a deficit in terms of long-term strategic thinking and the innovation required during such turbulent times. Implications: Although these results cannot be generalised to the whole of the hospitality industry, they shed light on important elements that industry associations should take into account.
The Tyrrhenian back‐arc basin developed at the rear of the E‐ward migrating Apennine fold‐and‐thrust belt, with northward decreasing rollback of the subducting Adria slab leading to northward fading ...of back‐arc extension. The northern portion of the Tyrrhenian basin is made of thinned continental crust, whereas in the central/southern portion extension eventually evolved to oceanic crust production. In this framework, a long‐lasting debate concerns the existence of a >200 km long transform zone along the 41st parallel, which should separate the two portions of the Tyrrhenian basin. At its eastern termination, a branch of the presumed transform zone enters the Tyrrhenian margin of the Apennine belt and occurs as an accommodation zone made of a ribbon of extensional faults and related basins. This accommodation zone, which separates areas of mutually perpendicular extension directions, is here introduced, described, and named the Ponza‐Alife accommodation zone. Interpretation of seismic lines and new structural and stratigraphic data from this accommodation zone have been used to constrain the pre‐orogenic and syn‐orogenic architecture of the subducting plate and the Plio‐Quaternary back‐arc extensional stage. Our data indicate that the studied zone retraces a deep‐seated transform fault system located in the subducting plate and inherited from an Early Jurassic rifting episode, which caused the lateral juxtaposition of different rift domains in the subducting plate. We propose that during collision and trench retreat, this lateral juxtaposition has controlled differential retreat of the subducting plate across the studied zone, forcing the development of the Ponza‐Alife accommodation zone in the overlying back‐arc basin's margin.
Key Points
The Ponza‐Alife accommodation zone segmenting the Apenninic margin of the Tyrrhenian back‐arc basin is introduced
Structural and stratigraphic data, and seismic interpretation allowed us to unravel the evolution of this accommodation zone
The accommodation zone originated from tearing in the downgoing plate reworking Jurassic faults that segmented the associated rift system
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FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
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The dispersibility of nanoparticles in solvents remains difficult to predict and control. In this paper, the dispersibility of organically-modified nanoparticles in various solvents ...with different solvent properties and molecular sizes are investigated. The study indicates that solvent molecular size, in addition to the affinity between organic modifier and solvent molecules, affects the dispersibility of the nanoparticles. The experimental results imply that solvents with molecular size small enough can disperse nanoparticles more efficiently. In addition, based on the concept that solvent accommodation induces the enhancement of dispersibility, two approaches to improve nanoparticle dispersibility in desired solvents are proposed. One is the addition of a small amount of solvent with the right size and properties to both penetrate the modifier shell and to act as intermediate between the desired solvent and the organic modifier molecules. The other is dual-molecule modification to create additional space at modifier-shell surface for the penetration of the desired solvent molecules. The results of these approaches based on the concept of the solvent accommodation can enhance the dispersibility trends.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
There is little research on the employment of autistic librarians and library support staff, and yet there are many ways in which libraries are a good fit for autistic individuals. As the prevalence ...of autism grows, academic libraries represent a viable option for meaningful and inclusive employment for autistic employees, provided library managers and administrators create environments that value diversity and inclusion. The main purpose of this study was to obtain information from autistic staff currently or recently employed in academic libraries in Canada about the current difficulties and barriers they experience in the workplace, the opportunities that working in a library gives to autistic employees, and potential accommodations they feel would allow them to excel and thrive in their workplaces. A questionnaire was developed to collect the data, designed to respond to our research questions. Through qualitative analysis we identified the following themes in the survey results: library as unsafe space, social difficulties in the workplace, difficulties requesting accommodations, and a need for improved understanding of autism.
Background
Loneliness is a major public health concern among college and university students, the evidence is inconsistent regarding whether there is an increasing trend or not. Furthermore, ...knowledge of the demographic determinants for loneliness are limited. The present study assesses recent trends of loneliness from 2014 to 2018, and explores demographic risk indicators of loneliness among students.
Method
Data was drawn from two waves of a national student health survey from 2014 and 2018 for higher education in Norway (the SHoT-study). In 2018, all 162,512 fulltime students in Norway were invited to participate and 50,054 students (69.1% women) aged 18-35 years were included (response rate = 30.8%). Loneliness was measured by “The Three-Item Loneliness Scale” (T-ILS) and one item from the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 (HSCL-25).
Results
Age showed a curvilinear association with loneliness, with the youngest and oldest students reporting the highest level of loneliness across all measures. Other significant demographic determinants of loneliness were being female, single and living alone. There was a considerable increase in loneliness from 2014 (16.5%) to 2018 (23.6%, p < .001), and the increase was particularly strong for males, for whom the proportion of feeling “extremely” lonely had more than doubled.
Conclusion
The high rate of loneliness and the increasing trends indicate the need for preventive interventions in the student population.
Loneliness among Norwegian university students increased from 2014 to 2018, particularly for males.
Students in transitional periods, both the youngest and oldest reported the most loneliness.
Being single and living alone were risk factors for loneliness.
Between 1977 and 1992, some 2,750 Cambodian, Laotian and Vietnamese refugees stayed at the temporary accommodation center in Cognin-les-Gorges (Isère). Public authorities and associations worked ...together to organize the reception of Asian families in this small village in the Pre-Alps. This singular social experiment, based on the encounter between exiles and the local population, left a lasting impression. This article traces its history and examines its memories.
The tourism industry is progressively emerging as a catalyst for economic growth in numerous countries. Conversely, it has emerged as a prevailing inclination and leisure pursuit, increasingly ...adopted by European Union inhabitants, as well as by individuals beyond its borders. In such circumstances, expenditures related to tourism tend to comprise a significant portion of individuals' financial allocations. Starting from these considerations, the paper analyzes the similarities and disparities between average expenditures per tourist, within the European Union member states, encompassing both domestic and international destinations. Specifically, four categories of expenses are considered: transportation, accommodation, dining, and the acquisition of durable and valuable goods.
The pupil of the eye constricts when moving focus from an object further away to an object closer by. This is called the pupil near response, which typically occurs together with accommodation and ...vergence responses. When immersed in virtual reality mediated through a head-mounted display, this triad is disrupted by the vergence-accommodation conflict. However, it is not yet clear if the disruption also affects the pupil near response. Two experiments were performed to assess this. The first experiment had participants follow a target that first appeared at a far position and then moved to either a near position (far-to-near; FN) or to another far position (far-to-far; FF). The second experiment had participants follow a target that jumped between five positions, which was repeated at several distances. Experiment 1 showed a greater pupil constriction amplitude for FN trials, compared to FF trials, suggesting that the pupil near response is intact in head-mounted display mediated virtual reality. Experiment 2 did not find that average pupil dilation differed when fixating targets at different distances, suggesting that the pupil near response is transient and does not result in sustained pupil size changes.
Characteristics of the infrastructure and of the tourist flows in Olt County (Romania). This study aims to be a detalied analysis, which, through its structure, methods, procedures and content, ...contributes to the clarification of the issues related to the capacity of the territorial systems to adapt in the analyzed region. The results were achived by analyzing the tourist flows, compared to the previous years, everything being outlined by the prospects of this area’s development. The results show a low number of tourists due to a poor process of modernization, lack of involvement of local authorities and little marketing, as the county is not included in the category of the recognized tourist destinations. This area has a high potential for tourism, so it is necessary for the county to be known both at national and international level.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
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